(27) Tiberius expels all Jews from Rome
A precedent for the similar action of Claudius, which brought Aquila and Priscilla to Corinth (Acts xviii. 2). Suetonius alludes to this order of Tiberius: “He repressed foreign religious ceremonies—Egyptian and Jewish rites—compelling their devotees to burn their sacred vestments with all their paraphernalia. Under pretext of their military oath, he distributed the younger Jews over provinces with an insalubrious climate; others of the same race, or followers of kindred religions, he removed from the city, under penalty for disobedience of servitude for life” (Tiberius, § 36).
I revert to the story, which I promised to tell, of what befell the Jews in Rome at this time.
A Jew, who was a thorough rascal, had been driven from his country by an accusation of transgressing certain laws and by fear of consequent punishment. He was then living in Rome, where he professed to expound the inner meaning[[177]] of the laws of Moses, and took into partnership three men with characters exactly resembling his own. Fulvia, a lady of rank and a proselyte to Judaism, became their disciple, and was induced by them to send a present of purple (cloth) and gold to the Temple at Jerusalem. Having obtained possession of these articles, they appropriated them to their own use to defray their private expenses;[[178]] which in fact was the original object of their request. Fulvia lodged a complaint with her husband Saturninus; he reported the matter to Tiberius, his friend; and Tiberius ordered the whole Jewish (colony) to quit Rome. The consuls enlisted four thousand of them and drafted them to the island of Sardinia, inflicting penalties on a very large number who refused military service in deference to their ancestral laws. Thus, through the wickedness of four men, were the Jews expelled from the city.—Ant. XVIII. 3. 4 f. (80-84).